Donations

Help Make

Arts Work

May 22, 1994|By TOM LASSITER Staff Writer

Joe Rumbaugh came to Fort Lauderdale in 1946 with $300 in his pocket. Rumbaugh dabbled in real estate, worked in the lumber business, founded and later sold a company that made metal wire products for construction, and built and operated several warehouses. He became a millionaire, several times over.

"Florida has been very good to me," said Rumbaugh, 82, who lives in the home that he and his wife built in the 1950s off North Federal Highway. "I believe in paying my dues, giving something back."

That is how Rumbaugh explains his gift of $1 million to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, which will receive the money when he dies. He also gave $100,000 when the center was raising money for construction.

Rumbaugh is one of a cast of little-known donors who have played a key role in the past decade's growth of cultural arts centers in Broward County.

Without such donations, as well as hundreds of smaller gifts and thousands of volunteer hours, there would be no $7.5 million Museum of Art. No $49 million Center for the Performing Arts. No $32 million Museum of Discovery and Science, say those in the cultural arts community.

"You can't take it with you," Rumbaugh, who is widowed and has no children, said of his wealth.

While each facility has received public and private, individual and corporate, support, the financial boost of individual donors has been a key.

"They are critical, because without a mix of everyone, these cultural facilities would not be built," said Mary Becht, director of the Broward County Cultural Affairs Division. "In most cases, in all of the cases, the private sector took the initiative to get these built."

Like many people with children, Ed Rudner, 43, was a frequent visitor to the old Discovery Center.

"I'm particularly interested in improving the life of the generation that will follow me, so things that have to do with children tend to get my interest first," said Rudner, the father of four and chairman and chief executive officer of Renaissance Cruises, which is based at Port Everglades.

Rudner, who moved to South Florida in 1973 and to Broward County in 1978, joined the center's board of trustees in the late 1980s. The topic at his first meeting was a report on the prospects of building what would become the Museum of Discovery and Science.

"The consulting firm said it would require a $30 million or so campaign, including private funding of $10 million," recalled Rudner, who served 2 1/2 years as president of the board. "[The consultant's) survey indicated this community could not support that. In fact, they didn't believe we could raise even $5 million."

The board refused to scale back its plans, and resolved to push ahead. "The board itself raised $1 million, and almost all the gifts were given by the trustees and their spouses and families," said Rudner, who contributed $100,000. "That was the basis of our credibility."

And the goal of $10 million?

"We exceeded it," he said. "We exceeded it by two or three million."

Like Rumbaugh and other major donors to the cultural arts, Rudner was hesitant to be singled out, saying the successful campaign to build the museum was the work of many people.

Still, individuals make the critical difference.

"These projects like the Museum of Art, like the Performing Arts Center, would never happen without the Edward Rudners, without them saying, `I care enough to give my time and expertise,'" said Kim Maher, executive director of the Museum of Discovery and Science.

Mary McCahill certainly has given to the Museum of Art her time and expertise, as well as money, including a $400,000 trust fund. She is known for her determined nurturing of the museum from its beginnings in a remodeled storefront on Las Olas Boulevard to the opening of the new museum in 1986.

"A lot of time and a tremendous amount of energy, and she has always put her money right where she urged others to," museum president Anna McDaniel said of McCahill, who served as museum president and chairman of the board of trustees before stepping down in 1986.

McCahill had been involved in a variety of civic activities since she was a young woman in Madison, Wis., where she was born and raised. She only had to look to her grandmother to see what could be accomplished with determination and organization.

"She helped start the first Catholic school in Madison," said McCahill, 86, who also served for 12 years as chairwoman of the board of trustees at Nova University.

McCahill moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1958 after the death of her first husband.

"I chose Fort Lauderdale because I didn't know anybody and I needed to start a new life," she said. "One of the first things I did was wander into the [art) museum. It was pretty sad."

Pauline Ozmun, a longtime art patron who died last year and left $1 million to the Museum of Art, got McCahill interested in working at the tiny museum. McCahill soon was helping to shape plans that would expand it into several neighboring storefronts, where it would remain until 1986.

"I guess the obvious [reward) is the joy of seeing the success of the museum, and being with Nova through the hardest times," McCahill said. "I've enjoyed every minute of it."